


reap the whirlwind

by amosanguis



Series: soul-bond/soulmates AUs [21]
Category: American West RPF, Billy the Kid RPF, The American West (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Nothing is Beautiful and Everything Hurts, Repeated Lines, The Lincoln County War, Western, how do you make an outlaw?, roaring rampage of revenge, you kill his soulmate
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:42:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23158738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amosanguis/pseuds/amosanguis
Summary: They say that you'll know your soulmate when you meet them. Well, Billy's mama says that. Billy's not so sure. Not until he meets John Tunstall.
Relationships: Henry "Billy the Kid" McCarty/John Henry Tunstall
Series: soul-bond/soulmates AUs [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/168263
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	reap the whirlwind

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a quote from _Young Guns_ even though this fic is for the docuseries _The American West_.
> 
> Historical accuracy? I don't know her.
> 
> Has only been given a cursory edit, please forgive all mistakes or kindly point them out.

**_1\. They say that you’ll know your soulmate when you meet them._ **

Well, Billy’s mama says that and Billy’s ten years old when he tells her he’s too old for her stories. She laughs and makes a big show of swooping him up and kissing his cheeks and Billy fights hard against laughing as he struggles free from her grip. When she lets him go, Billy wipes his face as his mama ruffles his hair.

It’s a memory Billy holds close.

**_2\. They say that you’ll know your soulmate—_ **

Billy’s fourteen when he places a wildflower on his mama’s casket, the new man she’d married a year back hadn’t even found time to crawl out of a liquor bottle long enough to make it to his wife’s funeral.

So.

Billy doesn’t give a shit what they say.

**_3\. They say that you’ll know—_ **

****

Billy looks over his fire at the approaching man on the horse, and there’s an ache in his chest that he dismisses as a thrill for a potential fight even as he readies his lies on his tongue.

The man on the horse looks down on him from on high as Billy says something about roundin’ up strays before heading into Lincoln.

The man on the horse leans forward in his saddle, says, “Those cattle you have belong to John Tunstall.”

And Billy knows, goddammit he _knows_ , that the man on the horse is himself John Tunstall. Billy knows and he can’t look up at him anymore, so he looks into his fire instead, pretends he knows nothing and says that Tunstall can come and get the cattle himself.

Then Tunstall is reaching for his gun and—

—no matter what Billy knows or doesn’t know—

—Billy’s instincts kicks in and he draws.

But then there’re more guns than just Tunstall’s trained on Billy.

(Funny how mama never mentioned this part.)

Billy has Tunstall’s own gun against Tunstall’s own head, staring down half-a-dozen other guns as he says, “You’ve got a lot of men,” Tunstall turns just slightly, meeting Billy’s gaze from the corner of his eye, “you got room for one more?”

Then Tunstall becomes Mr. Tunstall until, one night, not even two weeks later, watching the stars and sharing a bottle of whiskey from the front porch of home, he becomes John.

“I know you know,” John says with a sigh. “But I’m not gonna push it. Didn’t think you’d be so young.”

Billy smirks and he turns to John, smiling, surprising himself at his own sheepishness, as he says, “And I never thought it was real.”

They both laugh at that and Billy leans into John and John lets him. And Billy thinks they could stay like this forever.

But they can’t and dawn comes far too soon.

A month passes before John touches Billy any more than what could be considered casual. That changes after Billy’s back from scaring off a rustler – Billy didn’t hurt them none, but he may have been hyperaware that John was watching from the ridge and Billy may or may not have shot off the rustler’s hat, then the man’s pistols out of his hands, then the spurs off his boots as he turned and ran.

“Were you showing off?” John asks, leaning in close, a hand gripping Billy’s waist.

Billy smirks. “Depends. Did it work?”

John chuckles and then he’s reeling Billy in like a fish – and a fish Billy is, he’s been baited and hooked since that first night, caught on a line he hasn’t the sense to free himself from. Then John’s kissing him and Billy knows – he _knows_ – there’s no where else he’d rather be.

**_4\. —your soulmate—_ **

****

Billy watches John Henry Tunstall fall from his horse and something inside Billy splits and cracks open wide. He feels the bullets tear into his chest, he feels it when John dies.

The sheriff points his gun and says, “Don’t do anything stupid, son.”

And only Billy’s instinct for self-preservation ** _—_**

 ** _—_** an instinct that was honed in the slums of New York dodging the bigger kids, in that moment he saw his mother’s bloody handkerchief before seeming just to blink before he was standing at her grave, in every barroom brawl and alleyway scrap and gunfight he’s been in ** _—_**

 ** _—_** stays Billy’s hand.

Billy stands over John’s grave and rubs at his chest, feeling so keenly the emptiness there. But Billy doesn’t grieve long as bloodlust wells up in its place. So, he gathers up the Regulators, all these other men who’d been loyal to John, and Billy takes them hunting.

**_5\. They—_ **

Billy’s soulmate is taken from him because of petty greed, because John was too good with cattle, too good at running his store. Billy and his Regulators hunt down members of the House, as many as he can find, and they kill them all. They flood Lincoln County with blood and the streets run red as the House begins to burn.

Billy takes a special joy in putting a bullet between Sheriff Brady’s eyes.

But killing a sheriff brings a certain amount of attention.

When a deputy, who Billy honestly thinks is too good a man to be in that line of work, asks, “Did you really kill twenty-one men?”

Billy tells him (most of) the truth. “I wasn’t a criminal until the law made me one. I had a reason for every man I killed.”

“How many reasons did you have?” the deputy asks.

Billy smirks, he can’t help it, says, “Twenty-one.”

He had not even a year with his soulmate – he’s spent more time hunting down John’s killers than he did with John himself. If Billy were more inclined to being philosophical, he’d wonder what something like that does to someone like him.

Billy closes his eyes and rubs at his chest.

Billy regrets killing the deputy, really, he does, but he’s still got a list of men who need help gettin’ before God. So he rides out, hard and fast, leaving behind that regret, to find ‘em.

**_6\. They say that you’ll know your soulmate when you meet them._ **

Billy is twenty-one years old when he’s shot in the dark and starts choking on his own blood. But then he blinks and he’s sitting out on that front porch, leaning into John.

John turns to him says, “Hey, Billy. I missed you.”

Billy meets his eyes, smiles soft, “I missed you, too.”

This time, dawn doesn’t come, and Billy and John smile and laugh and love each other long into an endless night.

**_End._ **


End file.
